This invention relates to surgical instruments, and in particular to improved multi-functional surgical instruments particularly well-suited for microsurgical procedures. Multi-functional surgical instruments currently available, such as biopsy tools and tissue extractors having suction attachments for aspiration, have provided surgeons with a rapid and facile means for performing routine operations. These instruments have taken on a number of varied configurations, each adapted for the specific requirements of the desired surgical procedure.
Many of the presently available instruments of this type are bulky and cumbersome and are not designed for the new field of microsurgery, and do not provide adequate control of aspiration during the surgical operation. Although such multi-functional instruments are designed to cut and hold biopsy samples and are generally believed to be adequate for obtaining biopsies, they are not acceptable for microsurgery and aneurysm surgery requiring accurate and delicate manipulation of the instrument. Many of the currently available instruments for performing complex surgical procedures cannot adequately control the magnitude of suction within the instrument and thus present a considerable risk of rupturing healthy tissue by drawing too much tissue to the tip of the instrument during aspiration. In addition, many of these instruments have no positive control over operation of the cutting means and thus tissue is only randomly and sometimes accidentally severed.
Heretofore, there has not been an instrument available to the surgeon for providing flexibility of surgical dissections coupled with the simultaneous control of aspiration; or an instrument capable of safe, precise, and accurate manipulation at the operating site.